As many in the industry know, Supermicro is making a push to brand the company as a system supplier, rather than a component supplier. This makes sense as the company has seen brisk revenue growth over the past few years. To this end, Supermicro has upgraded its warranty terms on pre-built systems significantly.
Here are the older generation Supermicro SuperServer warranty terms as of 1 September 2007:
Supermicro provides a three-year warranty for labor and one-year warranty for parts. This limited warranty includes advance part replacement service covering a period of 1 year from Supermicro invoice date.
This was a fairly standard warranty. From 1 September 2007 to 31 August 2012 this was the standard warranty. Many of Supermicro’s competitors offered either 1 year parts and labor or three years parts and labor. Now Supermicro has changed terms.
Supermicro recently updated our Warranty for standard complete systems to:
- Three year labor
- Three year parts
- One year cross shipment
Overall, a longer warranty is usually better. We provided feedback to Supermicro that the website still has the old terms. In response, the company informed us that the new warranty has been active since 1 September 2012.
When looking at competition, there are varied levels of support available. We also know that Supermicro does offer additional paid support options. Another important aspect is how Supermicro sells. The company has many partner organizations that serve as value added resellers (VARs.) This partner network also can deliver service on their installed base. This is fairly common in the industry. Companies use partners to expand their sales, service and support networks.
With the warranty term moving from one year on parts to three years, that is exactly the opposite of what the hard drive manufacturers are doing. Supermicro’s increase of two years does make a failure less costly to correct. The one year cross shipment is a great feature since it allows a new server to be shipped while the other server is still in transit back to Supermicro.
Overall, this is a positive warranty change for Supermicro SuperServers.
Thanks for the information Patrick. This is an interesting change.
I recently started to use SuperMicro for servers because I was tired of being locked in on drives and server parts from the server manufacturer. I thought it was silly to pay twice as much for a drive which if it fails I have to send it back and wait for the replacement. I prefer to have spares and never be short a drive in the system. Their pricing is reseaonable so I can be the spare parts for my customers without having to depend on the manufacturer. Recent experience with a major manufacturer and not getting the replacement in the designated time has made me not want to rely on the manufacturers.
I am glad that they are increasing their warranty. They also seemed that they are talking to VARs now. I had contacted them before just to get recognized as a reseller, and did not receive a reply. I figured they dealt more with larger OEMs. Tried contact again recently and received a fast response. And I have to give them credit for the large product line they have, though it is a lot of work to get to know their products.
Good upgrade.
I buy SM from a local VAR though.
Maybe you could do an atricle on all of their terms. Not easy to read/ find.